Internet essayist and author

Further to my last post about it being somewhat difficult for Americans to exercise their right to free speech; the peaceful “Occupy” campaign that took place in front of the University of California, Davis recently provided nother even more blatant example of the fact that the authorities don’t really give a rat’s ass about the stipulations of the first amendment to the United States Constitution, specifically, the point about not interfering with the ‘right to peaceably assemble’.

Notice the spontaneous chanting of “shame on you” by the other protestors. We’ve all heard this chant at many such protests around the US over the past few months. The problem is that the policeman who nonchalantly pepper-sprayed a row of students sitting peacefully on the ground is very likely a psychopath, and, as we all really should know by now, psychopaths don’t feel guilt, much less shame, or regret or remorse, because they literally have no conscience. So shouting “shame on you” at this guy, apparently in an effort to shame him, is like shouting ‘shame on you’ to your dog when he pees on the rug in the firm belief that your dog will feel ashamed and not pee on the rug again because he actually has a capacity for self-reflection and can therefore feel shame over inappropriate acts. Actually, I might be being a little to hard on dogs here.

And for those who might be thinking, ‘hey, what’s a little pepper spray in the face, eh?’ I totally agree, pepper spray only causes temporary blindness (from 15–30 minutes), a burning sensation of the skin (from 45 to 60 minutes), upper body spasms which force a person to bend forward and uncontrollable coughing making it difficult to breathe or speak for between 3 to 15 minutes. So, since it is so non-lethal, I mean, it’s practically inoffensive, I think all OWS and other protestors should equip themselves with some pepper-spray for all future meetings with US forces of law and order on the streets of their great nation.